Thursday, May 9, 4:00-5:00pm
Room: Canfor Policy Room (1600)
Presenters: Yasmeen Shorish, Chair of Association of College and Research Libraries Research and Scholarly Environment Committee and Data Services Coordinator at James Madison University; Rebecca R. Kennison, Principal, K|N Consultants Ltd.; Nancy L. Maron, Founder, BlueSky to BluePrint, LLC
Description: Participate in a collaborative conversation about the Association of College and Research Libraries’ new research agenda for scholarly communications and the research environment. Developed over the course of a year with a high degree of community involvement — particularly historically underrepresented groups — this powerful new action-oriented agenda encourages the community to make the scholarly communications system more open, inclusive, and equitable by addressing issues concerning people, content, and systems.
Earlier definitions of “scholarly communications” focused on research outputs: understanding questions concerning digitization or fee models for supporting the distribution of digital content, for example. Today we recognize scholarly communications begins with the process of creating the work itself (research, writing, collaboration), continues through production and distribution and evaluation of that work, and includes the viable sustainability of that work. The importance of this full workflow has been thrown into stark relief by the recent acquisitions by commercial publishers who have shown a strong interest in supporting scholars at all stages in their communications workflow. Academic librarians need to understand in detail this entire workflow in order to determine what viable alternatives might be and how best to achieve them.
Library publishing features prominently in the research agenda. One of the earliest community engagement activities took place at the 2018 Library Publishing Forum. This presentation will provide an overview of the agenda, which outlines trends, encourages practical actions, and clearly identifies the most strategic research questions to pursue – paying special attention to areas where the LPC Ethical Framework for Library Publishing and the agenda complement one another. Participants will learn how to apply for an ACRL research grant to investigate one of these timely and substantial research questions, developing solutions that will move the community forward.